First Day of School

Do you remember your first day of school? Well, today was Kaylyn's first day of preschool. She is attending the Early Childhood Special Education Reverse Mainstreaming Preschool, which is part of Springfield Public Schools. She actually attends preschool on the campus of Jeffries Elementary, where she will be in kindergarten next year. She is in the afternoon preschool and goes Monday through Thursday. The program uses "normal" kids to help kids with developmental delays or handicaps to develop their skills. So Kaylyn gets to be a role model. Isn't she wonderful? We know she is, but know that other people may need a few minutes to recognize that.

Kaylyn was very excited to start school. On Tuesday, we went to an orientation meeting and she got to meet her teacher, Ms Deborah. Then Wednesday morning, we went to "Meet the Teacher" at the school and got to see her classroom. That was the clincher for Kaylyn. She couldn't wait to get back to play with all the cool stuff in her classroom. She spent all morning talking about school and wanting to get ready. But I worried that she would be sad and upset when I started to leave her. But she was perfectly fine sitting at the table coloring her picture with the other kids. I told her goodbye and headed out the door. I took her picture when I picked her up. She talked the whole way home about school. She loved it and can't wait until Monday to go again.

And for those other moms who wonder why I picked afternoon - here's my plan. Walk Kaylyn to school after lunch, getting exercise for me and fresh air for Morgan. Then come home for a 15 to 20 minutes of one-on-one time with Morgan. Then Morgan will take her nap from 1 to 3. (We've been working on building this nap schedule for the past few weeks.) Then a few more minutes of one-on-one time before we leave to pick up Kaylyn.

I expected Morgan to only nap until 2:45 as getting an actual 2 hour nap in doesn't happen very often, but she's normally close. So we got home and I fed Morgan a bottle. She CRASHED (not usual). She slept from 12:45 until I woke her up at 3:10 because I wanted to change her diaper before we left. I got a lot of work (actual work) done. On days when I don't have work, or when there's not so much of it, I'll be able to take some me time, do some projects, etc.